Big Mac wrote:It is your choice. But if you want constructive criticism from an artistic point of view, maybe you might need to explain what you are trying to achieve with the various graphical elements.

Take the background, for example. You have put up several, very different, backgrounds before this one. How are people, other than you, going to know what concept that background is going to try to "sell" to the viewer? Is this supposed to be a dark and brooding background, with the touch of light in the foreground?

Yes, a dark and brooding background is what I'm going for. The world's history is bloody, and darkness has a tendency to corrupt from the shadows. The light should either come from within the text or surround it.

How important is it to include 'World of'? I think a logo with just the word Kulan in it would look cleaner and would be less confusing; the only reason I say that is because having a logo that is clean and easy to read with the least amount of words will be easier to read when shrunk to the appropriate size.

I think if you want to include more than just Kulan the logo would look similar to the following;

Alternately what could be done is spacing out the characters so that 'World of' is in between a caps K and N;

With the font I used, the smaller version looks weird because the u in Kulan looks partially non-existent but you get the idea.

The Angelic Dragon wrote:How important is it to include 'World of'? I think a logo with just the word Kulan in it would look cleaner and would be less confusing; the only reason I say that is because having a logo that is clean and easy to read with the least amount of words will be easier to read when shrunk to the appropriate size.

It's very important. For me, the setting name has always been World of Kulan, not just Kulan. It would feel weird to change it now.

The Angelic Dragon wrote:Alternately what could be done is spacing out the characters so that 'World of' is in between a caps K and N;

With the font I used, the smaller version looks weird because the u in Kulan looks partially non-existent but you get the idea.

The style of this one has promise. I'll see if I can come up with something similar.

IMO, on that latest one, the narrow parts of the letters are too narrow; they kind of fade out, esp. when you look at it at a smaller size. The tiny size of "World of" has a similar problem. The crackle/stone background is kind of interesting, but it's a little too busy visually; the logo needs better contrast when reduced.

Personally, I like the look of this one best:

Knightfall wrote:Cropped and Re-sized

It's a bit fuzzy, but I think that could fixed by eliminating the white shadow in the original before you resize it. That "glow" looks fine for the shining light idea at the larger size, but the effect is lost at icon size.

timemrick wrote:IMO, on that latest one, the narrow parts of the letters are too narrow; they kind of fade out, esp. when you look at it at a smaller size. The tiny size of "World of" has a similar problem. The crackle/stone background is kind of interesting, but it's a little too busy visually; the logo needs better contrast when reduced.

I guess I could ask cliff if he could tweak it, but I don't want to pressure him. He's already created me this one and two others (not meant for The Piazza).

EDIT: Oh what the heck, I asked him on Facebook!

timemrick wrote:Personally, I like the look of this one best:

Knightfall wrote:Cropped and Re-sized

It's a bit fuzzy, but I think that could fixed by eliminating the white shadow in the original before you resize it. That "glow" looks fine for the shining light idea at the larger size, but the effect is lost at icon size.

I recently tweaked one of my designs to have a more solid dropshadow effect since the white ds in this image was fuzzy. That's part of the glow.

I think this last logo design is probably the best choice for here on The Piazza. It's simple and you can see it clearly when shrunk down. Plus, it pays homage to my original World of Kulan logo, which can be seen on my old Kulan Wiki page: http://walktheroad.wikispaces.com/World_of_Kulan